Log:Array Consortium: Interlude - Riding In Cabs With Rodians

Riding In Cabs With Rodians

How does one go about kidnapping a kidnapper? Well, if you know his name/address/place of work/cab number an/or schedule and you're plugged into the manager of his cab company, you'll do what Adhar does - that is, call his boss and have him tell dispatch to send the green bastard to come pick up a fare. That is also Adhar. Who is also in disguise.

Adhar awaits Sneeder in new flesh - or at least a very well-done diguise in which plastiflesh prosthetics are involved. Dressed as a businessman of the upper levels, Adhar engineers for Sneeder to come and pick him up out front of a known brothel in the lower levels, dressed in a good suit and with salt-and-pepper hair slicked back in an executive style. Really, he looks /nothing/ like the young smuggler he really is. Even the eye wound is filled in with plastiflesh and a glass eye put in, though he wears dark glasses besides. Thus parked, he awaits the coming of the kidnapper.

Minutes pass before the cab comes around the corner. It pulls up, the back door opens with a hiss. "You call for ride?" The Rodian says from his seat, looking over his shoulder to the young business man. When Adhar looks to Sneeder, he will notice bruises to his face and slight swelling around one eye. He hasn't had a good few days it would seem.

Which will amuse him to no end internally - but he nods, climbing into the car behind the fellow. "Good evening," he says to the unfortunate fellow. "Take me to the Six Treasures, won't you?" The Six Treasures, of course, being a /different/ brothel where the 'six treasures' are the six different species of women they specialize in. "Parking lot. I'll be picking up a date."

The cab is nice as far as cabs go. Though as Adhar takes a glance around, he would notice that the electronic locking mechanism to the passenger door is brand new, having recently been replaced. There is a divider between him and the driver with a slot to allow for a sheet of metal to rise quickly, creating a divider between the two. At his feet are three small tubes that stick out just slightly from under the seat. The Rodian reaches out to start the meter. "Six Treasures. We be there soon." He replies with a slightly bruised mouth. The car starts up and moves forward, quickly gaining momentum. "You an important man?"

"Not really." He smirks faintly as he settles into his seat. "Would I be taking a cab if I were? In an underlevel? This late at night?" He reaches down to start fiddling with his 'shoes', in reality taking the moment to surreptitiously disable the mechanism if he can. Maybe point them aside, or disconnect the power to what he imagines is a stun or gas array?

They are simple tubes sticking out from the metal underneath the seat. Upon closer inspection, it would definitely be a gas delivered attack. Though, the mechanism is actually behind the metalic barrier. "Many men have dealings in many places. Men up high will come down low. Men down low will go up high. One can never tell." He turns the corner, heading towards the direction of the Six Treasures. "I ask too many questions. Do not mind me."

From his pocket, Adhar produces a square of chewing resin - well, two. One which he chews up quickly while 'tying his shoes' and tears apart to plug the gas emitters, and the other which he pops into his mouth to chew as he sits up. "I know how it is," he says, grinning a bit from his seat. "We always have to have the hustle, guys like you and me. Don't worry about it." He leans back as he watches the city go by, searching eyes masked by his glasses as he looks for the location of the shutter controls.

The Rodian seems to be just wanting to do the quick taxi fare. After messing things up, he is likely laying low. "Yes. We all must hustle. We all must make money to survive." He makes the next turn, drawing the closer to the next stop. As Adhar looks around, he spies a small panel on the front dash, within reach of the driver. It is not a panel typicaly found in cabs.

"Amen to that." Adhar rubs at the side of his nose, the leans forward, so his face rests before the shutter goes up. "Tell you what. When we get there, I'll give you a little somethin' you can shop round. One hustler to another. What do you say?"

This really interests the Rodian. One antennae goes up higher, giving him a rather inquisitive look. "You talk my language." He says with that rough, Rodian style voice. "Ah! There it is." He turns towards their destination, heading to the parking lot.

He waits until the cab is in place - parked, in fact, if possible. "Ahhh," says Adhar, chuckling faintly. "Appreciated. So, I have a thing to tell you - it will greatly profit you. So, first: I have a DL-54 in my hand, that's currently placed right in hand to put a hole through this speeder's hull - powerful on its own, it has a military-grade galven booster unit on board. It'll go through the deck and right through your torso, /as well/ as the shutter controls mounted there in the dash." He clacks the end of the barrel against the armored partition between the compartments, just so he can hear this mystery object. "If you move? You die. If you try and escape? You die. If you try and activate that gas projector under the passenger seat that I've plugged? You fail and /then/ you die, possibly from the gas bottle exploding from backpressure. In fact, you're going to have to work very hard just to stay alive, Sneeder, do you understand? But I am willing to give you the chance."

Very calm, just like that. Ordering cakes again.

Sneeder turns around the corner and into the parking lot. The cab is of course parked. He is about to say something when Adhar begins his small speech. The Rodian's eyes get wider, if that is possible at all. "I don't want trouble. I understand." Both of the dark blue/green hands are raised in a gesture of surrender. "What do you want? Money? You can have it. I have it all here in the pouch on the seat next to me." One finger gestures towards the pouch he was talking about.

"I don't want any of that, Sneeder." Adhar smiles faintly. "I want to know who hired you to kidnap the two people from a few days ago, you see. The Zabrak man and the Zeltron woman. You picked them up from outside the Little Secret at the spaceport tower. You know of whom I speak, yes?"

Silence. There is a long moment of silence. Slowly, the Rodian turns his head to look back to the man holding up the barrel of the gun. "Oh." It is a simple word filled with so many undertones. He clears his throat and glances back forward. "Yeah. I know them. I gave them a ride to the Gearhead district."

"And you gassed them, and gave them to someone, who then decided it would be smart to try and ransom them back to me." He taps the divider with the muzzle of that pistol. "Do you have an idea of who I am, now?"

Sneeder takes in a breath before letting it out. "Yeah. You be that Adhar man they talk about. Look, I fucked up. But, if you just pay them, your friends will be released. These men are bad, but stay true to word." He continues, "It wasn't personal. It was accident I take your people."

He chuckles softly at that. "Bad people," says Adhar, his voice dropping in temperature with ever word. "I assure you, Sneeder, I am worse. /Far/ worse. So if you don't want to get stunned and wake up floating in a pressure suit with a five percent oxygen load, and nobody to pick you up, you will tell me everything you know about them. Do you understand?"

Sneeder's hands fold up into fists, a sign of annoyance over the situation. He looks as if he is about to bolt, but the man stays put for now. "What I know will not be real later. I just take people to them when they ask for something. They are never in same place for long." He sighs, "They be in the undercity. If you don't pay, the Zabrak will be thrown into gladitorial games and the Zeltron will be sold off to someone. They say Zeltrons make good money."

"Tell me where they are." A beat. "Do this, and I will do you a favor."

He laughs. "Not at all," says Adhar. "I'm going to arrange for you to go back to Rodia for the time being, safe and with money in your pockets. Tell me this information, and I'll ensure you will be safe - and when I have dealt with them, /all/ of them, you can go back to whatever life you want. I reward those who do what I ask. I'm not /that/ much of a bastard, unless I have to be. You don't strike me as someone who'll send me to that place."

Sneeder sighs. "Fine. They are in some underground tunnels under the Brazen Hussy. It is just a temporary holding. You will have to be quick to get them. They will be moved soon. I do not know where they are taken afterwards. All I know is when they ask for something, I give it to them there."

"That will do fine, Sneeder." He reaches into his pocket and produces a handful of credit tubes, which he places in back seat of a cab, as well as a transport ticket - albeit a nice, comfortable one - next to them once he shows it to the fellow. One way to Rodia. "I'll find you once this is done. You've got an hour or so to leave, so make it quick - I'll know when ou've gotten there. And don't worry about your boss, or your job. I've made sure they'll both be here when you get back, if you want them."

He's about to get out of the car when he says, "What names have you got for me? Who's in charge?"

Sneeder glances to the credits and the ticket. "Chopa." He responds. "That is the man I reported to." He curses himself in Rodian, slumping his head back against the seat.

"Thank you." Adhar reaches to open the door, assuming that Sneeder isn't dumb enough to try and lock him in. "You will be safe. You have my word. I repay /everyone/, good or bad." And opening the door, he gets out of the cab, letting Sneeder get the hell out of Dodge.

Once the man is out of the cab, Sneeder does just that. He gets the hell out of Dodge!

Adhar watches the Rodian go, smirking faintly as he watches the speeder-cab's taillights recede oh so rapidly into the night. If he's done his job right, Sneeder there will be on his way to Rodia within the next ninety minutes; if not, well, Adhar's tracked him down before, he can do it again - and next time he won't be nearly so charitable. For now, however, he takes a datapad out from the breast pocket of his suit jacket, and jots down orders for his security chief.

Chief,

I have a mission for you concerning what we talked about previously. You are to conduct recon over a place called the Brazen Hussy. According to the kidnapping agent, a Hourk named Chopa runs a slaving operation and uses people like the cabbie to collect potential agents. Chopa is known for being able to get specifically what you want, and also takes fighters from his slave stock to fight in gladiatorial matches until they die.

You are to recon the Brazen Hussy and, once you have secured information as to how to access the tunnels beneath the location, invade and take back our personnel. Do not, under any circumstances, move in an overt way until this takes place - feel free to speak with the new captain-candidate, Darius Wildes, to see if he will assist in information-gathering. He wants to prove himself, this is an excellent way to do so. If you need my help, I will be about, but this is your operation. Make it count.